MANILA, Philippines - Economic growth slowed to 0.8 percent in the three months to September, the government said Thursday, amid a decline in manufacturing output.

The third quarter figure was well below the 4.6 percent growth posted in the same period a year ago and marked a fall from the 1.5 percent growth recorded in the three months to June.

In the first half of this year the Philippines recorded a one percent pace of GDP growth on the back of the government's 300-billion-peso stimulus package, which went mostly into construction in the early part of the year.

The jobless rate inched up to 7.6 percent compared to 7.4 percent a year earlier.

However, Economic Planning Secretary Augusto Santos said a four percent boost in private consumption reflected "the Philippine economy's gradual recovery in the period.

"There are signs that the global economic rebound is underway, with some Asian neighbors freshly out of recession," he said.

Rolando Tungpalan, deputy head of the economic planning department, said "there is basis to be optimistic" for the fourth quarter, however, and stressed that the country had avoided recession unlike some of its Asian neighbors.

Consumer spending typically increases around Christmas along with overseas remittances from Filipinos working abroad.

The government earlier said it expects a devastating series of storms that hit Manila and the northern third of the country in late September and early October to trim the full-year GDP growth to between 0.7-1.7 percent, slightly down from the government's earlier forecast growth of between 0.8-1.8 percent.